InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ To Fulfill a Duty ❯ Chapter Eight ( Chapter 8 )
To Fulfill a Duty
Chapter Eight
By: DeadBHunter
"talking" `thinking'
Chapter Eight
A harsh voice roused the neko, kitsune, taijiya, and houshi, in the hut. The neko woke up and trotted outside of the hut while the kitsune simply rolled over grumbled something about crazy people and their problems. The taijiya had been sleeping peacefully until a cursed hand found its way to her body. A resounding slap filled the air and a red faced houshi rubbed his face, attempting to dispel the stinging sensation with a grin on his face.
"Oi, Sango! Hurry up and make breakfast! Later, you guys can go do whatever you want, we have to stay in the village because we don't know when Sesshomaru will come back with Kagome."
The two humans glanced at each other, knowing that it was rare for their hanyou friend to stop the shard hunt for anything, besides the walking clay pot.
A whirlwind approached the group of travelers and stopped in front of Inuyasha, unnoticed by the others in the party. The winds died down, revealing a youkai with light blue eyes and a frown on his face. His black hair was tied up and kept out of his eyes with a brown headband.
"Dog-crap, where's my woman? You better not have lost her!" Kouga threatened Inuyasha.
Heads turned to stare at the ookami youkai who was standing in front of the hanyou. Kouga scowled at the group of shard hunters, seeing everyone but Kagome. Quickly Inuyasha drew his sword and leveled it at the intruder.
Kouga, after using his senses to check for Kagome, shouted at the offending inu hanyou. "You really are shit! How could you lose Kagome? I was going to collect her after I had defeated Naraku on my own, but now I'm going to have to keep her with me because a pathetic hanyou can't even remember where he left my woman!"
"You stinking ookami! I didn't lose her! Sesshomaru took her aw-"
"I don't care who the fuck this Sesshomaru guy is! He has my woman and I'm going to get her back and she will be my mate and bare me many pups!" he declared, earning a growl from the hanyou before him.
Inuyasha's hands on his already drawn sword tightened, causing his knuckles to turn an unearthly white. "She's not your woman!" Inuyasha shouted back, adding fuel to the already heated conversation.
"What would you know, Dog-shit. You already have that corpse to keep you happy. Kagome is too good for you and your dirty blood. No hanyou can protect her! Look at your clay pot, look what happened to her! You killed her; I'm not going to let the same thing happen to Kagome!"
"Keep your nose where it belongs, wolf! You don't know anything about what happened fifty-two years ago!"
"What else is their to know? You betrayed her! She died because of you. She died because of your claws that you so carelessly slashed threw the woman that you supposedly loved!"
Inuyasha lowered his head and softly whispered, "That won't happen again. Not to Kagome. She doesn't deserve it."
"That's right," Kouga said so everyone could hear. "That's why I'm taking her back with me. That way my pack can protect her while I go kill Naraku."
"Bastard," Inuyasha yelled, and sprang up from his fighting stance to make a wild swing at Kouga with Testusaiga.
Kouga quickly dodged out of the way and taunted him. "Only a hanyou fights with a sword. Real youkai fight with their claws and fists, what they were born with!"
Inuyasha, without a thought, tossed his sword aside and attempted to punch the ookami in front of him. Kouga once again evaded his attack and retaliated with a swipe of his claws, effectively drawing blood from Inuyasha's arm.
Seeing his blood, Inuyasha quickly bathed his claws in his blood and shouted, "Hijjin Tessuo!"
Blades of Inuyasha's blood raced toward Kouga. Only one reached its mark and the others created gashes in the ground, one almost hitting Sango and Miroku on the side.
The four spectators watched Inuyasha and Kouga battle, none knowing what to do. Previously, Kagome had been able to separate the two with a "sit" or by simply coming between the two. Now, Kagome was in the Western Lands far away, possibly resting somewhere on a futon or outside watching the scenery.
They were quickly jerked out of their thoughts when they heard the sound of flesh ripping. Kouga, with the shards in his legs, had rushed up to Inuyasha and slashed at him, sending him crashing into a tree. The tree was now slightly bent and blood could be seen, splattered onto the trunk.
Kouga wiped the blood off from his claws and once light blue eyes were now infected with slight traces of red. He walked up to Inuyasha and boasted, "Ha, you lost, Dog-crap. You can't even fight for your woman. When I find her, I will take her to my den and she will bare my pups."
Once again, Inuyasha growled at this, but this time, when Inuyasha looked up, red was invading and blocking out the gold of his eyes and his pupils were shrinking until they were tiny pinpricks in his eyes.
"You fucking wolf, she's MINE!"
With that, Inuyasha charged at Kouga, who was still oblivious to the fact that Inuyasha now had the speed and strength of a full youkai but no control to even out the sudden change.
~Kagome's mind~
Junsui was back the next day, but this time she was alone. Junsui arrived in front of the Goshinboku and saw Kagome sitting on the ground. The ground around her was free of all leaves, but in directly in front of here was a pile of green leaves. Normally, this sight would have been puzzling for the old miko, but since it was fall, the once simple puzzlement turned into total confusion. The leaves on the Goshinboku were dying and falling off the tree in spectacular arrays of colors. Yellow, orange, red, and brown leaves filled the trees and covered the ground farther away from Kagome. The green leaves in the pile in front of Kagome appeared to have been picked off the trees in the spring, not seemingly to have fallen off them naturally.
Junsi slowly walked toward the young miko, bewilderment clearly written on her face. As she approached, she took note that Kagome had not yet acknowledged the elderly miko approaching. She was so immersed in what she was doing that she did not become aware of the droplets of sweat that were gradually sliding down from her forhead and dotting the white color of her mini skirt.
"Kagome," Junsui called. "What are you doing?"
Kagome looked up from her work. Her eyes held surprise and a trace of guilt. Junsui wondered what would cause the girl to feel guilty. Surprise was expected, but not guilt.
"I'm practicing, Junsui," Kagome responded.
"Practicing what, child?"
"I'm practicing my healing powers. These green leaves used to be different colors. But I decided to practice using my healing powers by restoring their green color!" Kagome said excitedly.
"If I may ask, why were you feeling guilty?"
"Well," Kagome began sheepishly, "I know that Sesshomaru brought me here and everything, but I don't really want to spend so much time with him. I appreciate him bringing me here and finding you to help me, just, well, I don't know if I can trust him. I want to get away from him and return to Inuyasha and my friends. I feel guilty because he worked so hard. He had to convince Inuyasha to let him bring me here. I know that's not easy, Inuyasha can be really stubborn sometimes," she said with a smile.
`She seems as if she knows from experience that Inuyasha is stubborn. Perhaps there is more between the two than just friendship. Could it be that the hanyou is more than just a friend? More than just love for a sibling? But love
"Also, I know that he won't kill me. But what happens when he loses control, or if he wants to kill me? He can, I know he can. But I also know he has this little girl with him. I know that he won't kill me, but he has before, and that's what really scares me sometimes, that he might do it again." Kagome added with her head down. She was looking at her feet, not meeting the miko's eyes for fear of seeing disgust or annoyance at her petty doubts.
"Kagome, look at me." Junsui lifted Kagome's head so she could look into her eyes. "There is nothing for you to feel guilty about. You cannot change the past. What has happened has happened and cannot be changed. How we deal with our emotions that come from the past, whether they are fear or happiness shows what kind of people we are and defines who we are."
Junsui's words had banished some of her worries toward the youkai lord, but her words could not shake the misgivings that had appeared when Sesshomaru had tried to kill her before.
His eyes never betrayed any emotion, making him seem like a perfect killing machine, one that can only kill. But deep down, Kagome knew that he had a heart. Maybe not a big heart, but a heart nonetheless. A heart covered in ice, waiting for someone to melt it and make him smile again.
She did not know who could banish the ice surrounding his heart, or how long it would take. But she did know that she was determined to try, despite the consequences. She was willing to risk everything she had to warm his heart and breathe life into his soul.
A/N: I'm sooooooooooo sorry this is out so late! I had computer problems, you know, the things with the computer viruses that eat up your totally FINISHED chapter, then spit it back out with bits of saliva on it… *shudders* Well maybe not the spitting back out part, but close ENOUGH! Well, Kouga finally made an appearance. I bet some of you were wondering when he would show up. Well he finally did, and he's going to get a shock out of the not so crappy "Dog-crap." Yes, I know, that was lame. But you can't blame me for trying! Back to more important stuff. I was wondering if you guys want me to respond to the reviews that I get. I notice that many authors do that, and maybe it would be a nice treat to those of you that do review! *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*